all right well good morning uh beautiful morning at that thanks for joining us to discuss a year-long investigation that culminated in an arrest none of which would have been possible without some incredibly uh engaged and collaborative members of this community and some phenomenal police work my name is Mike Ben the public information manager for the Portland Police Bureau I'll be sharing a few details about the case then we'll be hearing from mayor Keith Wilson police chief Bob Day Mom County district attorney Nathan Vasquez Pastor JW Matt Hennessy uh we'll be hearing from Alan rudwick of the Elliot neighborhood association and we believe a representative AR of arkans seal monor school will be joining us as well we'll follow that up with some Q&A and we have some of our investigators and detectives who are involved in the case uh here as well and they can help answer some of the questions you might have with that I can share that in March of 2024 community members came forward to the Portland Police Bureau with allegations of criminal Behavior associated with a market across the street from Dawson Park as a result ppb's North Precinct neighborhood response team in collaboration with our human trafficking unit and our narcotics and organized crime unit launched what turned out to be a year-long investigation into the stopandgo miniart located at 2858 North Williams Avenue on Monday March 3rd 2025 a search warrant was executed at the convenience store detectives seized a significant amount of cocaine fentanyl hawin numerous Firearms one that was stolen and $6,600 in cash in addition detective received uh seized several digital scales covered in suspected drug residue and a box of razor blades believed to be used for cutting narcotics shortly before the execution of that search warrant the Stop and Go owner Donald Sharma a 43-year-old man from Beaverton was arrested during a traffic stop in the area of North Cook Street and North ganton Bine Avenue Sharma was transported to the molten County Detention Center and lodged on numerous drug charges detectives believe that the trafficking of drugs in and out of the store has been a contributing factor to the open air drug Market here at the park as well as some of the gun violence in this area moreover investigators are confident that this case will have a positive impact a longlasting impact on the Elliot neighborhood and this Greater Community with that I'd like to welcome mayor Keith Wilson thank you for this opportunity thank you for coming here to really highlight this very important Victory and I really am impressed and proud to sit here with Chief day and da Vasquez hear you you bet so this neighborhood the Dawson Park the Elliot neighborhood holds an important place in my heart my mother went to school at Boise Elliott I was born couple hundred yards from where we're at right now I live in northeast Portland I ride by this park often it was uh a few months ago that there was a naked person in the park homeless suffering from withdrawal one of the afflictions of the neighborhood I stopped found that person's shelter got him a ride and I was incredibly proud yesterday with my Council colleagues to announce that Portland Street response now has the ability to shuttle because Chief day in a story said to me a few months ago he was at a park and there was another naked man and he couldn't do anything for that person and spent three hours to provide care well that was one Pebble in a pond that creates these incred incredible Ripples and today with this announcement we just threw another Pebble in the pond to create ripples around Portland and every time we announce something that's changing this year it's one more Pebble that continues to just aggregate together to really change the direction our city is going and so I barged in on this announcement by the way when I heard about it I asked can I participate and they said absolutely Mr Mayor so I want to thank you all for coming to the neighbors of Dawson Elliot and to all the neighbors throughout Portland this is just one more more Pebble that we're throwing into the pond together to make those changes we want to see in our Portland so thank you very much for joining us and then I'm going to turn this over to Chief day and really celebrate this important day so thank you for coming as well Chief good morning as I was reflecting on the events here that we were going to be recognizing today and thinking about the cost of crime and I want to start with recognizing the humanity that as much as I support and believe in this work there was a man's life who was changed this week by being taken into custody and entered into the criminal justice system which can be a very unforgiving system and I just want to recognize regardless of the outcome that's a human being that's a person who had made choices uh and intersected with us in this in this way but I don't want to lose sight of that I don't want to lose sight of the cost that if we lose this Market which I have no idea whether it will stay or not that's a cost of the community we need local markets in our community we need to have corner stores there's a cost involved in that there's a cost financially the police Bureau we've spent hundreds and hundreds of hours on this case there's a cost on a sense of a loss of safety that this park in this neighborhood has experienced um for too long and I was sort of lamenting and sharing this with my wife last night she actually stopped me and she said you know the word I hear is investment she says I hear investment and I began to think back over the last year and how we've stood in this partk together I see so many familiar faces and she's right this also is an example of investment it's an investment by the community it's an investment by the police Bureau with the community it's an investment in recognizing the long-standing history and challenges of policing in some of our more marginalized and struggling communities and we know that this park is significant to the history of Albina to the history of Portland and to our black brothers and sisters in this city and we know that sometimes the police haven't always showing up the way that we want them to and we understand the complexity of that but in the last year we've invested in conversations myself Pastor Hennessy I see President posie and others about what that looks like so that we can continue to provide a just and fair and Safe Community for all so it's an investment it's an investment by the men and women the police Bureau who I'm immensely proud of who took on this Challenge and have spent as we just highlighted almost a year working on it we could do this press conference on a corner in just about every neighborhood in this city I'm so proud of the work the police Bureau is doing and the sacrifice that the men and women are making not just on their own but with the community with our leaders learning and addressing problems through a data-driven approach that's producing results as we saw in this uh search warrant and finally it's an ongoing investment this is by no means the end this is no means to me a a success or a stopping point in a few short weeks as we can even feel a little bit this morning spring will be upon us I worked in this District in the early 90s I remember its vibrancy I remember the opportunities that Community had to come here and to really enjoy and be together and I am confident and hopeful that that will be the case as the weather begin to turn and that this is a small step in that but you have my commitment that the police Bureau will continue to invest not only in our enforcement efforts but in our efforts around relationships in our efforts around Community because it is making a difference I Echo the mayor's comments each one each step each time is another uh indication about Portland's renewal Portland's Renaissance that's happening and not just downtown but Citywide so thank you for being here thank you for being a part of it congratulations to the men and women that have have done the good work from the police spirit and I want to turn it over to our partner and colleague da Nathan Vasquez good morning everyone I'm going to keep my comments very brief because I want the voices of Pastor Hennessy and our members of the Elliot neighborhood in Dawson Park I want their voices to be heard so I'll say this very briefly I'm so proud of the work that Portland Police has done here the work with our Maps attorney Alex Gara and the message that should be sent loud and clear is this the DA's office is here to work with the community to work with Portland Police because we will not tolerate individuals dealing these poisons on our streets here in front of our churches with our playgrounds and our children so close by it is absolutely unacceptable and it's one in which this office will take a very firm stand on when it comes to individuals that are suffering from substance abuse disorder yes we will work with them we will do everything we can to get them them to treat treat but we will not tolerate this type of behavior so close to our hospitals churches and children thank you for being here today I appreciate it good morning everyone uh my name is JW Matt Hennessy I am the and the last name is h n n s e I'm the pastor of the Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church which is literally just a matter of steps from here in addition to our church being here we own property right here as well on Monroe Avenue and so this matters to us and I'm grateful that we're here I just want us to remember number one this land belonged to others a long time ago I want us to remember that I want us to remember the mothers and fathers and grandmothers and grandfathers and others who also inhabited this place a long time ago I want us to remember the people that for them this is their Pioneer Square they've been coming here for 40 or 50 years and they want this place to be safe many times when you come here you'll find people that are playing Domino's cards or anything like that not trying to hurt anybody just really here because they care about each other and have a good relationship with each other they have the same concerns that you and I have about safety they have the same concerns that you and I have about the importance of being able to have community and I want to thank the mayor I want to thank the police chief the city council all of the leaders that are instrumental in doing what needed to be done at this store on Monday of this week uh I speak also for legacy who's done a great job being a good neighbor and I'm glad to see them represented here today as well when I say all of these things we're reminded of the fact that Community is all of us working together but such things as drug dealing and guns being uh uh offered and all of the kinds of activities that were going on none of us want that and quite frankly I'm grateful to the police for the fact number one that this was a year-long investigation it didn't just happen overnight number two I want to thank them for the importance of handling this situation in a very humane way I say that not just as a pastor I've been a pastor up here for 20 years so I've been going up and down these streets for that long I've lived in the area for 36 years and what I know as a person who has also LED police and fire in my own experience is that often times even when we're trying to do something right the way it's handled is not and I want to thank them for the humane way in which they dealt with this I also want to let you know my heart goes out just like yours over the last as a result of this and other things going on three people have lost their lives this past week and we care and we care deeply about them and their families and quite frankly as we stand here there have been people who have been killed right here in the park right here around the park and therefore as we come today this is another step towards making things safer for everybody I think about our friends at Immaculate Heart Right Here across the street they've had to deal with and make changes that are specifically made because of some of the activities so My Hope and prayer for all of us is that when we leave this place today that we the members of the staff and the administration of the preschool uh and ourselves every one of us that we do our job to continue to make this place safe and a wonderful place to be I almost brought my little dog Peppers uh because I walk Peppers here in the park almost every day and I do that because I want to let people know that I too feel safe here and go up to the people who are in the park make them feel like they are loved and cared for and that we care about them and not give a negative narrative assuming that everybody's doing something wrong so I'm just going to beg you to do that we all need to keep working together the last thing I'm going to say is that this was important um in terms of what the police did because literally last Friday a number of us were standing with the Williams Russell CDC as they were dedicating the ground that will be built with home ownership with rental units with business and it's literally a Stones throw up the street the fact of the matter is we own this community it belongs to the people and we're going to keep on working together no matter what to make sure that we are safe and that we have a lovely place to be with that I just want to say thank you and I also want to introduce brother Allan uh Ludwick who's part of the leadership of the Elliott neighborhood and I want to recognize um uh the president of the NAACP James posy who I serve as the chair of the political action uh committee so thank you all very much Allan [Applause] thanks everyone I'm not used to public speaking but welcome to Elliott I wish it was on better terms um this neighborhood has uh been disinvested in for generations and is starting to come back um one of the things that we'd like to make sure is that when this store if it is reopened that it has Windows on both sides there's a big problem with the way that that building is um I'd like to uh pimo and the police there's a bunch of different groups that have been doing work to help make this place better Pastor mentioned a number of them um the Elliot neighborhood board has spent a lot of time trying to activate this park and make it feel a safer place and I'm hoping that this is a another step in that direction um but that store has been in the news on and off since the 1980s um there's something about the way that the Urban Design is on this corner uh maybe it's this empty field that leg see owns over here um there's a number of little things like that but this store needs to change we can't have this can't be the main focus of our neighborhood association we've got a square mile of area to be focused on um I'll leave it at that thank you all thank you uh good morning everybody um can you all hear me yeah can you hear me okay your big voice so um so I'm happy that uh uh we finally dealt with that store that store has been a problem it is a big win for this community but I just want to share with you all I'm concerned because we should have never been here we've known that this store has been a problem we should have taken care of this business before now and it's not nice for us to be out here with a photo op and congratulating the police and every body but at the end of the day this community is in danger we have the highest unemployment rate we have the highest incarceration rate we've got to get somebody out here to help connect the dots how do we change the demographics of this community so we won't get to this point I ran a deli on the corners called Elliot emac Cafe I could not stay in business people of color black people in this community have been devastated by covid and everything else we have to be more intentional about how we structure this community so everybody can benefit from the economic capacity of this town so I'm suggesting to you all everybody that's sitting here hook up with Prosper Portland hook up to the business Community come here and make this community representative of the rest of the community otherwise we'll probably be back here again with another situation we know the people who took that store over were the wrong kind of people for this community they come from somewhere else out of Detroit or wherever people who live in this community need an opportunity to come in do a store be able to be prosperous you all need to connect the dots thank you um hello uh I'm Danielle Herman I'm the head of school over at Arkansas montor directly on the oh sorry hi I'm Danielle Herman I'm the head of school at Aron montauri just directly across the corner there um I think the perspective I have is probably a little bit more centralized to my direct Community as opposed to more expansive to the other individuals here um and just in regards to the store um closing and just the actions by the city and the police over the last couple of months particularly since the um large shooting that we had in the summer um from my side it's been really great to see more of a community of approach um we've had a lot of success with the city doing things that help solve the like logistical problems um as the neighborhood association was saying like working on the building to have Windows and kind of addressing things like litter and the bus stop and the police being really responsive to texts and phone calls and helping us figure out how to work our security systems um and how we can all collaborate together to make it more of a community focused effort um and a community focused response that actually gets things done um I'm really excited to see what that store can turn into if it is owned by somebody who's a little bit more neighborhood focused um the church is working on a community mural um on the side of the school um and from my side I am eager to see a more Community focused presentation of the neighborhood and a more positive presentation of the community as a whole so that when we are here it's because of big community events and successes um and not because of gun violence um and pleased to know that we're continuing to go in that direction uh with the collaboration from all of the parties that are here today I want to thank all the speakers I also want to acknowledge uh the city council president who was here thank you for your support the president of uh Legacy Emanuel here as well but out of respect for everyone's time not everyone could uh speak formally with that we'll open it up to some Q&A if you can just uh state your name and who you're with and who uh you have the question for we'll start with Joel from coin yes Joel with coin 6 News my question is for chief day um my question is uh do we have an update in that July 19th shooting and do you believe this is at all connected to the case that you guys are talking about today yeah so uh spoke with the uh excuse me there's a question about the followup on the shooting from last July that um was one of the events that brought us here um and I Echo president Posey's comments it's not lost on me that the number of times that we've here so thank you for your call to urgency and call to action um in that regard but as far as the the shooting on the 19th we spoke with detectives this morning they're continuing to actively investigate it is a complex case as we know we had a lot of rounds fired on that day uh believe we have multiple Shooters involved so uh for right now I can tell you that I mean we are still actively working on it but um don't have you person in custody at this point as regard to as it's related to the store or not we haven't connected those dots at this point so it' be it be an error to suggest that but I know that the team acting detective McDonald Sergeant AMA that are here and others I mean we're doing this from a holistic standpoint so if there are any uh connections we'll definitely draw the line there also a question for mik news I'm sorry for chief day I apologize I'd like to have it for Mike Benner we can make it for Mike Benner um I I wanted to know a little more of the timeline so when did the store open and when did you guys start getting tips have you already been getting tips sooner is this an effort of community policing and building trust can you talk a little bit yeah this is a great opportunity for uh the people who did the hard work on this to step up for a minute so Mr McDonald officer McDonald uh one of our acting detectives in the in the precinct um who really leaned into this and took this on he can give you a little bit of the timeline and uh either Sergeant namai can speak to a little bit to the community portion of it as well but you want to walk them through just a little bit of the last uh year and just a few minutes sure uh so the community did let us know and know in certain terms that the store was a problem and that it was something that had to be addressed um through further investigation and this is probably starting around this time last year honestly uh we started working through that process of getting into the store as far as that's concerned the timeline as you're asking about for a year we had a few roadblocks there was some stuff we obviously had to work through with uh well just getting there investigation wise but like once it happened it was pretty quick how it finally came together um and of course if the community hadn't talked to us to begin with about any of this we wouldn't have known what the problem was to begin with even wouldn't have known where to start at so we appreciate that everybody working with us of course uh our folks in Patrol we always St on their shoulders with everything that we do um and I think this also speaks to the efficacy of our neighborhood response teams um both at North Central and East and of course the expertise that our narcotics organization uh excuse me narcotics organized crime division gives us did you have a followup from that when did the store open and you've only started getting tips last year but could this been a problem prior to that I believe that the lease was taken over by this person uh back in 2020 or 2019 somewhere in there um and then you know we started hearing about the problems probably late 2023 um and then 2024 the things really started to get buildup steam as far as us making it a priority so maybe this is a question for the community members then but why was this brought up now versus when it first started ear 202s I think the the Nexus of drug dealing started to become fairly obvious and of course when you have a school right next door when you have a church that's right there and then a hospital that's behind me that kind of led to it becoming a bigger and bigger priority for us go ahead he with kxl can you provide any more specifics as far as how the trafficking was happening were they selling it like from the counter if you asked for something specific or do they have employees in the community selling just picking up the resources here to actually sell the drugs I can't get into specifics on that thanks can you provide any specifics to people here in the the neighborhood about the immediate future of what they're going to be seeing at the store is it closed for now I don't I can't speak to that I don't know if anybody from the city can at this point speak to the future of the store current condition no I'm not aware right now is it currently closed apparently I mean it looks boarded up this morning so um that's going to be my assumption but yeah I'm not I'm not sure Makenna uh Makenna with pbtv um any other suspects currently being investigated or are we just focusing on this one arrest the owner of the store well what I was just going to say you know it's an ongoing investigation at this time so I'd hate to just close the book and say you know this is the extent of it um you know in terms of name suspects we don't have at this point but um this is really and I think uh acting detective McDonald said it really well you know these things don't happen in a vacuum within the police Bureau this is a holistic effort took a lot of resources from ppb to make this happen um and uh from multiple different precincts and divisions and so all of our cases we're constantly sharing information with one another to see if there's a Nexus other parts of the city even regionally Etc so um you know as it evolves it it may may lead to more rest it may just be this but then we're going to continue to focus on the area to try and uh restore some of that sense of safety that's well deserved Joel do you have another one yeah um my question is cour documents suggests that uh Sharma said something to the effect of somebody was snitching um to an officer or investigator um given the violent that we've seen in the park even recently are you guys at all concerned about retaliation well we're always taking and the questions regarding you know potential retaliation for Community or those that may have participated in this investigation we're obviously always sensitive to that um you know there is always inherent risk in participating in these processes for for people we understand that um but we really uh work closely with our partners in the DA's office um there's a lot of uh very scripted uh laws that you know really uh would come to bear on somebody who were to try and do any kind of witness tampering or any kind of interference in the investigation and I know that we and as well as da Vasquez and his office will be looking at that to see if there's any attempt to try and intimidate or interrupt or or any kind of Retribution that's just completely unacceptable so um I'm hopeful that you know the way that this is is going right now early on that we're not seeing that and my hope would be that we'd not see anything in that regard Christina a couple more questions yeah you know I had asked earlier about s of the attempts to build trust within the community and whether or not that led to some of these tips it sounds like there may have been some intimidation going on by I don't know members of whoever was doing these crimes and so how did you overcome that and maybe some members of the community want to speak to that as well yeah I mean you've got some great representatives from uh Elliott neighborhood and and other community leaders that would certainly love to have their perspective um you know we've talked regularly in the police Bureau one of our primary goals is transforming the dynamic between the police and the people we serve and that doesn't happen just because you hope it happen it happens because you get out and you engage and you make yourself available and that's a two-way street you know often times we point to the police in appropriately so we carry a huge amount of authority and responsibility in this conversation in our role in this city but it's a two-way street and the thing that I appreciate about many of the folks and they've spoken and others is that they show up and even if we're not in agreement There's an opportunity to look for understanding There's an opportunity to try and seek out options and solutions um and I think in the past we've hit and missed in that regard um sadly uh that I think the events as particularly last July 19th but um really galvanized us in a way that opened up some doors and some conversations and so multiple City partners multiple community members the police Bureau all being at the table you know leads that information when it comes you know when it comes to Crime solving crime I mean generally speaking somebody knows something generally speaking somebody knows something and if we can have that level of trust and confidence in one another as well as in the system we can be far more successful in not only making arrest but even preventing crime and uh as long as I'm in this role that's going to continue to be a passion of mine that we able to have those relationships and those communication to be able to try and come to those Solutions oh sorry or da Vasquez we learned that Sharma is currently out on bail um any concern about a potential danger to the community here you speak to that sure um you know it's something that in the District Attorney's office we're going to take very seriously we'll always look at those I'll say it's extremely rare that those come to pass but it's something we monitor closely we did ask for bail in this case a very high amount of bail it was posted and and so we will continue to closely monitor with our pre-trial services and keep an eye on the case very closely as it goes through the system yeah follow up presumably for the da another eight charges related to possession delivering and Manufacturing within a th000 feet of the school even closer I'd say we're already dropped can you explain why I can so the issue is sadly the law doesn't recognize preschools as a school for purposes of that statute as much as I think that's ridiculous and I would love to see that be charged it is something where the the that's a state legislature issue and I am uh certainly a huge proponent of that being changed because um I believe that this conduct being so close to a school being so close to a hospital churches is is absolutely unacceptable so so from our perspective we want to charge that so it's also a kindergarten so it is yeah unfortunately it's the statutory definition that it doesn't make and so if if we can we will just know that gentleman here Chief da uh you say that the investigation started in 2024 maybe 2023 does that mean that LCC never referred you to issues they knew about in 2022 I'm not aware I mean we'd have to do some follow up on that mic in terms of information we did or did not have from OLCC in 2022 so I can't speak to that right now but we can follow up with that get your name and if somebody wants to know uh the information we did or did not have and the actions we did or did not take that time period we can put that out thanks a number of collaborators at all approximate number of people that may have been involved in this Chris do you know how many people like just roughly you've talked to that helped with the investigation no I mean involved in the actual crimes again this is still under investigation unfortunately I can't speak to that thank you want to thank everyone for coming obviously media for uh sharing this message Community for being here as well uh the support uh means a lot and uh we continue onward uh thank you to our speakers even the ones who couldn't speak out of an interest of time I failed to mention uh councel Ryan who had to leave thank you for his support and uh enjoy the rest of this beautiful day and weekend thank you